Don't expect the lights to come on any faster than they did on Jan. 29, should the same series of events lead to a major power outage.

At a debriefing with the media held Thursday, Yukon Energy spokeswoman Janet Patterson and Yukon Electrical Co. Ltd. spokesman James Gratten said the power couldn't have come on-line any faster than it did that memorable day.

'Everything that could be done was done,' said Patterson. 'I don't see how we could've done anything different.'

Had Yukon Electrical put all locations back on at the same time, it would have overloaded the system, bringing it back to square one, they said.

During the debriefing, representatives from the utility providers, city and territory emergency response outlined the series of events that happened around the lengthy power failure.

'It certainly was not a usual chain of events,' said Patterson. 'In summary, we were left with no power.'

As hydro units went down, diesel-generated power in the rural communities also failed in some cases.

While energy and electrical crews worked to get the system up and running again, emergency services had plans ready to go should the power be out for a longer extended period.

An outline of events shows the Aishihik generating plant, which was generating about 48 per cent of the power available, tripped off at 1:34 p.m.

Then, when the two hydro generators in Whitehorse couldn't handle the heavier load, they tripped off with the Takhini station reactor, also tripping off due to a fault. It came back on at 8:21 p.m. with the transmission line in Faro back on at 10:26 p.m.

Normally, Yukon Energy would try to bring its largest Whitehorse unit back into operation, but an odd noise made the company decide to use the two smaller generators.

'They were on, but tripped off again because the load was too large for them to handle. When they tripped off, two head gates closed as a protective measure, shutting off the water supply to the generators,' reads the summery provided by Yukon Energy.

It wasn't until 4:19 p.m. that the larger generator was found to be in fine condition and back in service.

'That was a great relief,' said Patterson.

From there, Yukon Energy was able to start up the diesel generators, which have to be brought on using hydro generation.

As water backed up in Schwatka Lake due to the gates closing at the Yukon Energy site, Yukon Energy staff manually reopened the gates to let the water out.

The Aishihik plant is continuing to operate at a reduced capacity until the cable is replaced, said Patterson.

Yukon Energy staff were joined by Yukon Electrical crews in getting power restored to their 13,000 customers.

Gratten said the company normally has about three people on-call during the weekend. It was fortunate to have almost 100 per cent of their staff come in to work on the situation, which occurred on a Sunday, he added.

Had it been a weekend like Sourdough Rendezvous weekend, that may not have been the case, he said.

'Phones were ringing off the hook,' he said. 'The reality of the situation was we were unable to pick up every call that was coming through.'

Calls were placed to radio stations in Whitehorse, but only CBC North could be reached at 2:45 p.m. with updates provided throughout the day.

Doug Caldwell, an Emergency Measures Organization information officer, said the organization now has after-hours phone numbers available for radio staff.

When Yukon Electrical was able to get power from Yukon Energy, staff opted to bring it on in chunks to small areas, have it stabilize, and then move on to the next area. The areas chosen were based on how much power was available with what area could use it.

After most areas were on, the decision was made to turn off power to part of Riverdale to restore electricity to part of the downtown core that had been without electricity the longest.

Some have taken issue with the Canada Games Centre being turned on prior to some residential areas. Gratten told reporters that when the company is getting an entire area back on-line, it doesn't look at individual properties and their types of uses, like a recreation centre.

'The entire area was on or the entire area was off,' said Gratten.

While the company was confident power would be restored relatively soon, the one exception was in Carmacks.

Both diesel plants in Haines Junction and Carmacks, scheduled to fire up if the line goes down, didn't function either.

The Haines Junction plant worked for a little more than an hour after losing hydro power at 2:05 p.m.

A mechanic was eventually sent from Whitehorse and got it back up and running at 7:25 p.m. before it shut down again and had to be restarted. It then continued operating until the community was back on the grid the next day, Monday.

In Carmacks, the diesel paint was unable to start up when the grid went down at 1:34 p.m. after operating on Saturday and earlier in the week when Yukon Energy was doing some work.

It wasn't until 5:30 p.m. that electrical and mechanical contractors were sent to Whitehorse and 10:47 p.m. that the plant was operating. All customers were fully restored by 11 p.m.

Carmacks was also reconnected on the Monday.

City officials were counting on Gratten's expertise to determine how to proceed.

'Probably at about 5:30 (p.m.), we did activate more of our team,' said Blaine Rapp, who's with the city.

That came after the city put up barricades by the Yukon River where the water was rising with the path underneath the Robert Campbell Bridge covered in ice.

Emergency Social Services and Emergency Health Services were also working behind the scenes on plans to open up reception centres at schools.

'A lot was being done behind the scenes,' said Caldwell.

It was at 4:40 p.m. when EMO decided to contact the Department of Education in case schools were needed. The larger schools have back-up power and heat and could be opened when needed.

'Within a half-hour, the power started to be restored,' said Brian Kitchen of Emergency Social Services. The schools could have been opened at a 'moment's notice,' he added.

'We would've opened them up and provided hot drinks and so on,' said Kitchen.

A plan was also in place to help seniors and others needing help if needed with home care workers contacting clients at risk. Clients known to the government would have been contacted.

The media would also be used to have neighbours checking on nearby seniors who may not be known to the Yukon government. Kitchen noted if it had been required, a phone line would have also been set up for people needing assistance.

Though the power was coming back on and the plans were not put into action, Kitchen said the length of time it took was longer than what he thought it would be.

One thing that shone through for Caldwell during the power outage was the way everyone came together in the rural communities like Carcross to help each other out, gathering at homes which had alternate sources of heat like a woodstove.

In Whitehorse, though there were people calling into the radio stations to let others know they had alternative heat sources they were willing to share, that wasn't always the case.

'We've come to this point where other things are going on,' said Caldwell.

In some cases, neighbours don't know one another or they are busy with many of the happenings in town. On Jan. 29, for example, many found themselves at the Canada Games Centre or the Yukon Arts Centre when the power went out.

'We have to approach it from the community viewpoint,' said Caldwell.

Had the outage happened during the summer, the power likely would have been on sooner, Patterson and Gratten told reporters, noting there's less demand on the system in the warmer months.

There's no short-term plan in place to avert such a situation in the future.

However, Patterson noted that later this year, Yukon Energy will begin work on a 20-year plan dealing with power supply needs for the territory involving the public.

Yukon Electrical plans to be part of that process, said Gratten.

The company could also be busy dealing with any complaints coming forward to the Yukon Utility Board after the outage.

Gratten said the company investigated about 19 complaints of appliances not working following the outage, but a 'smoking gun' hasn't been revealed, leaving customers to replace damaged appliances on their own.

Customers would be within their rights to appeal Yukon Electrical's finding to the Yukon Utility Board, said Gratten.